I'll Be Here
by Hikari-chan
Summary: When Hikaru encounters a rough time, Akari decides to have a talk with him. *Spoilers for volume 15* Tiny bit of Hikaru/Akari


I'll Be Here by Hikari-chan

Disclaimer: I want a copy of the Hikaru no Go manga. 

Opening Remarks: I'll make this as quick as I can so you can get to the story. 

One, this is a semi-AR side story. Some events in the story actually happen in the manga. It takes place in the midst of volume 15, if my memory serves me right about the events of the manga. It's one of those stories that could have happened in the mainstream of the manga, but with or without it, the actual published storyline will remain the same as it is now. 

Two, _SPOILER ALERT_!! I said midst of volume 15, but I can be wrong. If you've read all of volume 16 though, you're safe. Otherwise, I'm warning you here. Read at your own risk. 

Three, Hikaru/Akari pairing, or as close as it could get anyways. 

That's it. The rest of the babbling and explanations are left till the end of the story, including, but not limited to, Japanese explanations. I hope you enjoy it! 

*************************************** 

The wind blew softly, making the leaves dance along the road. She brushed a strand of her auburn hair out of her face as she jogged to school, her schoolbag swinging beside her. As she passed by a familiar looking house, she couldn't help but stop to stare up at the window she knew was his. She glanced at the little plaque next to the gate. _Shindo_ was printed neatly on it in kanji. The gates were open and welcoming. She sighed aloud. She remembered when the two of them were kids. She'd always come early, and they'd always walk to school together. But ever since late in the sixth grade, when he had started taking a liking to the ancient game of go. . . . 

She wrinkled her nose a bit, and managed to let out a little smile. It was the first time he had ever been serious about anything. She had thought that he was going through a phase, but when his enthusiasm for the game didn't die, she realized that there must be more to what he was doing than putting stones on a board. To be honest with herself, she knew that she was glad he found something to love about life, and she had tried her best to understand his undying passion. 

"I'm leaving, Mom!" the all-too-familiar voice and a slam of the front door jotted her out of her daydream. 

He hurried out the front gate and crashed into her, even though she had been rooted to the same place for the past five minutes. _Typical Hikaru_, she couldn't help but think as he grabbed her free hand to keep both of them from falling over. 

"Akari?" he asked, obviously surprised. 

"Ohayo Hikaru!" Fujisaki Akari greeted her childhood best friend with her signature sunny smile. 

"Ohayo," Shindo Hikaru replied, blinking his deep gray eyes at her. "What are you doing here?" 

Akari smiled. "I was just walking by on my way to school, that's all," she answered. It was almost the truth anyway. She just neglected to tell him that she had been standing on his porch for a full five minutes. 

"Oh," Hikaru uttered blankly. Then, as though he had just realized that he still held her hand in his, he quickly let go and turned towards the direction of the school. "Should we go?" 

Akari nodded, smiling at him again and falling into step beside him. The two walked silently for some time before Akari decided to break the comfortable silence, which was strangely uncomfortable at the same time. "It's been awhile since we've walked to school together," she commented. 

Hikaru gave a grunt of agreement absentmindedly, almost as though he hadn't heard her words, but was acknowledging the fact that she had talked to him. 

Akari looked up at him curiously, noting the faraway expression in his normally sparkling eyes. His blond bangs fell unevenly into his face, as though he hadn't bothered to brush his hair in the morning. His feet clunked heavily on the pavement. She frowned and reached to touch his shoulder. 

"Ohayo, Akari-chan!" a voice suddenly called out to her. 

Akari jumped a foot into the air, and quickly snatched her hand away from Hikaru. She turned around to see a couple of her friends hurrying towards her. "Ohayo, Miyuki-chan, Kimiko-chan," she replied with a smile and a small wave. 

The two girls ran up to them, and almost slyly, Kiyokara Miyuki started, "Ohayo, Shindo-kun. Were we interrupting something?" 

Kimiko stifled a giggle while Akari blushed. She opened her mouth to respond, but Hikaru got there first. "Interrupting what?" he asked, confused. 

This caused Kimiko to giggle harder, earning her a strange look from Hikaru. "I don't find anything funny," he muttered, rolling his eyes. He turned to Akari. "You can walk with them to school, right?" 

Akari nodded, still studying his unusual behavior. 

"Good," Hikaru answered. "I'll see you later then." 

He turned and walked away, seemingly brooding the entire way. Akari watched his retreating back, feeling like something was amiss. She turned to her friends, who were both looking at her with big smiles on their faces. She blinked. "What?" she asked. 

"So what's going on?" Miyuki asked, getting straight to the point. Her long, gleaming blond hair and dark, raven coloured eyes both glinted in the sun, suiting her blunt and straightforward disposition perfectly. 

"Nothing," Akari replied, taking a step towards the direction of the school, a subtle hint for her friends to follow her. "I bumped into him this morning, and we walked together for a little bit, that's all." 

"It looked like something was going to happen just before we interrupted," Miyuki supplied, twirling a little so that she faced Akari as she walked backwards towards the school. 

"It's too bad Miyuki-chan couldn't keep her mouth shut for another five minutes," Torika Kimiko added. Her chin length black hair framed her heart-shaped face, which was currently adorned with an amused smile as she watched her friend, who's long-time crush she didn't understand. It wasn't that Shindo-kun was bad-looking. It was more the fact that he barely acknowledged the presence of any female specimen within a fifty mile radius of him. And considering Akari had had a crush, if not something more, for the guy for as long as Kimiko had known the cheery girl, she had come to the conclusion that Shindo-kun had to be one of three things: blind, clueless, or in denial. 

"I was just going to ask him if something was wrong," Akari answered quietly, falling into a contemplative state once again. "He doesn't seem like himself today." 

"He seems fine to me," Miyuki replied, ticking off her fingers as she went. "Kind of annoyed by us, completely oblivious to the feelings of a certain childhood friend, and has his head in the 'go' clouds. Yep, normal." 

"No!" Akari exclaimed, exasperated with her friend's behavior. "I mean that he seems sad today, like he has lost something, or someone, important. His eyes were. . .dull, almost." 

Miyuki blinked. "Really? He looked normal to me," she chirped. 

Kimiko giggled again. She walked a little faster and pulled Miyuki along the road. "When you're in love, you notice all the little things about that person that no one else does," she yelled back. 

Akari blushed, chasing after her two so-called friends. "Kimiko-chan!!" 

~*~*~*~*~ 

The clicking of the black and white stones against the wooden board echoed through the chemistry room. She could vaguely hear the sound of the games that were going on, but she couldn't focus on the board in front of her, a fact that her partner soon noticed. He put the white stone he was about to play back into the container and sat up straighter, staring at her face and examining the lost look in her eyes. After a few minutes, she looked up at him. 

"Oh, is it my turn, Mitani-kun?" she asked, reaching for the container of black stones. 

"No," Mitani Yuuki replied quietly, continuing to study her with his dark violet eyes, which to many people, looked almost black. "But if you haven't noticed, that means you haven't been paying attention." 

Akari sighed. "I'm sorry," she muttered quietly. 

"Don't be," Mitani answered, shaking his head of orange hair. "You won't learn anything if your mind is elsewhere though." He pointed to a couple of places on the board. "These are mistakes you haven't made in a long time." 

Akari nodded. "Should we try again then?" she questioned with a cheery smile, cleaning up the stones on the board. 

"What's wrong?" Mitani responded, staring right into her warm, chocolate brown eyes. 

"It's nothing," Akari replied quickly, knowing how Mitani felt about Hikaru, especially after Hikaru quit the go club to become an insei. 

"Doesn't seem like nothing to me," Kaneko spoke up from a few dozen feet away, her beady black eyes meeting Akari's. Then, as though reading Akari's mind, she continued, "He's usually out of it in class, but more so today than any other day. The history teacher had to call him three times before he snapped out of it." 

"Do you know if Hikaru's sick?" Akari asked, glad that Kaneko had been the one to bring him up. She really admired the other girl for her self-confidence. If she was even a little bit like Kaneko, then maybe, just maybe, she would already have confessed to Hikaru. However, she hadn't, because she was scared. What would happen to their relationship if he felt differently, which she was almost sure he did. 

"I figured you would know," Kaneko answered, standing up from her game. 

"I don't," Akari admitted softly. "He looks like he lost something important to him, but that's just my gut feeling. He hasn't told me anything." 

"Who cares about Shindo anyway?" Mitani cut in, annoyed with the constant talk about the boy who left the club. 

Kaneko whacked him in the back of the head with the notebook that was sitting on the counter. 

"Hey!" Mitani shouted, turning abruptly in his sit to face his attacker. 

Kaneko, however, paid no attention to him as she addressed Akari. "Don't worry so much, Fujisaki-san. Maybe he lost a game," she suggested sensibly. "He'll probably be okay in a couple of days." 

Akari nodded slowly. She thought about Kaneko had said, and realized that the other girl was most likely correct. She looked at her watch before giving Kaneko a bright smile. "Thanks, Kaneko-san. I appreciated that," she said gratefully. "I have to go home early today to help with dinner. I'll see you all tomorrow!" 

Hurrying out of the room, she never noticed Kaneko and Mitani both studying her as she left. 

"If he hurts her, I'll kill him," the orange haired boy mumbled to himself. 

"If you do, she'll kill _you_," Kaneko replied bluntly, fighting down the smirk that threatened to cross her face when Mitani glared her. 

~*~*~*~*~ 

It was about a week later that she saw him again. She hadn't stopped in front of his house like that again, for she had been late almost everyday afterwards. Her mind had been elsewhere all week, and everyone, with the exception of Hikaru, had noticed. Then again, if Hikaru had noticed, she probably wouldn't have been out of it in the first place. 

Despite what Kaneko had said and the high possibility of it being true, Akari couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Call it a gut feeling, a sixth sense, a psychic link with Hikaru, but she knew that the cause of his behavior wasn't just a lost game. Besides, Hikaru never brooded over lost games. He just vowed to get better. That was the Hikaru that she knew. So it had to be something else. 

She had decided to ask him the next day, when, quite by chance, she saw him run past her and out the front gate of the school. 

"Hikaru!" she called out, but he didn't stop, nor give any indication that he had heard her voice. 

"Shindo!" a male voice followed her cry a few seconds later. "Wasn't your goal to catch up to me?!" 

Akari turned around, and was very surprised to find a student in the Kaiou Junior High uniform standing a few feet from her. His dark hair was in a bowl cut, the ends of the strands reaching his cheek, an unusual style for a guy his age. 

"Ex-Excuse me," she managed to utter. 

The boy turned to face her, and she instantly recognized the intense, passionate, bright green eyes. He was the one who had shown up at the go club when they had been back in their freshman year, the one that Hikaru had vowed not to play against until he himself got better. What was his name again? To. . .Touya, was it? That was what Hikaru had called him before, though her memory could be rusty by now. 

"You're. . . friends with Hikaru?" she asked. 

"I wouldn't say friends," the boy replied. He bowed politely, and Akari found that she hadn't expected the formalness. "I'm Touya Akira. You're Shindo's girlfriend, right? I remember you from the tournament." 

Akari flushed, shaking her head vehemently. "N-No!" she cried out. "I mean, no, you're mistaken. I'm just his friend." 

"Oh, I'm very sorry," Akira apologized. "You seemed close to him, and you called him by his given name, so I assumed. . . ." 

"It's okay," Akari assured him. "I'm Fujisaki Akari. Nice to meet you, Touya-kun. If you don't mind my asking, do you know what's wrong with Hikaru? I'm worried." 

Akira shook his head. "No, I just know that he missed the normally scheduled games for this week and the Young Lions' Tournament," he answered. "I came to find out why, and he told me that he wouldn't play go again." 

Akira stopped, clenching his hands into fists. 

"Not play again?" Akari echoed. "But. . .But Hikaru loves go! I know he does!" 

"I wouldn't argue with you there. That's why I don't understand what's going on," Akira gritted his teeth. "But I'm not going to wait for him. I'll keep advancing." He was almost talking to himself, for the girl beside him couldn't possibly know what he was talking about. Giving her another polite bow, he turned to leave the school. 

"Wait! Touya-kun!" Akari's voice suddenly yelled over the sound of the student body. 

He turned to see her smiling at him. "Thank you, for trying to cheer up Hikaru," she said. 

"I'm not trying to cheer him up," Akira replied nonchalantly. He studied the girl for a moment before giving her a brief, fleeting smile. "But you should try if you want to." 

Akari blinked, watching him walk out of the Haze Junior High school gates. _I want to_, she thought sadly to herself, _but what can I do if he turned you, a person that he so obviously looks up to, away?_

~*~*~*~*~ 

Breaking into a light jog, Akari berated herself for not bringing her coat with her. Granted, the general store was only a couple of blocks away, which was why she just grabbed the money her mother had given her for the milk before dashing out the door. On the other hand, one could argue that she was still worried about a certain boy, which would be why she didn't think of taking her wallet, her cell phone, or her coat, despite the chilly weather today. If her keys hadn't already been in her blouse pockets, she probably would have left those behind too. 

As she passed by the park that she had spend so many hours playing in when she was young, she noticed a familiar figure crouching by the sandbox. His blond bangs gleamed slightly in the light of the setting sun, confirming her guess. 

"Hikaru?" she called softly as she walked towards him. 

The response she got wasn't what she expected at all. He turned around so quickly that he lost his balance and fell into the sandbox with a loud cry of "Sai?!" 

"Sai?" Akari echoed. She let a confused look mar her pretty face for a few seconds. "Who's Sai?" 

The boy stood up from his fallen position in the sandbox and dusted his pants off. "No one," he answered in a whisper. He had to be hearing things, or not getting enough sleep, or hoping too much for the ghost's presence. Since when did Sai and Akari sound alike? Other than the fact that they were both annoying sometimes. 

Akari frowned, walking up to him so that they were only standing a few feet apart. "Is that the important person you lost?" she questioned. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hikaru replied, somewhere between upset and surprised. How did she know that? She couldn't see Sai, so there was no way she'd know that he was gone. 

"I'm talking about you," Akari answered, her eyes reflecting the anxiety she felt. "You've lost something, or someone, close to you. Is that why you've been so weird lately?" 

"You're annoying, you know," Hikaru stated, turning away and walking to the swing set. 

Akari reeled back, feeling like he had just hit her with something. Was that how he really felt? She was about to leave him alone when a thought from a week ago came back to her. Hadn't she wished to be a little more confident in herself, like Kaneko? What was happening to her? She used to bicker with Hikaru all the time. There was no reason why she should back down now. She frowned and stomped up to Hikaru, who had seated himself on one of the three swings. 

"You're rude, you know," she bit back, glaring down at him. 

Much to her annoyance, Hikaru merely stared down at the ground. "I know," he replied. "And I always say things that I shouldn't. Someone used to tell me that all the time." 

Hearing the wistfulness in his voice, Akari's expression softened. She gingerly took a seat beside him, setting the milk down next to her. "Was that person Sai?" she questioned softly. 

Hikaru didn't lift his gaze from the ground. "Why does it matter?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. 

"Because he, or she, must have been a really important person to you," Akari replied, her voice showing the hurt that she felt. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be so. . .heartbroken." 

"Him," Hikaru supplied, and Akari suddenly felt relieved that he wasn't missing another girl. "And I'm _not_ heartbroken." 

"Oh no?" Akari questioned. 

"No," Hikaru denied, "I just. . . wait, why am I telling you this?" 

"Because I'll listen," Akari answered simply. Then she added, almost in a whisper, "And no matter what you say, no matter how stupid anyone else may think you sound, you know that I'll never ridicule you." 

Hikaru finally looked up at her, obviously surprised. "Why wouldn't you?" he asked. 

Akari smiled. "Because I believe in you," she responded. "I don't think you'll lie to me." 

Hikaru did nothing but stare at her, and Akari suddenly felt shy and embarrassed. The way he was studying her made her feel like she had just bared her soul to him. What was scarier was that she almost had. She had gone as close to admitting she liked him as she could without actually confessing her feelings. 

"Even you wouldn't believe me about this," Hikaru finally said, shaking his head. 

"Try me," Akari challenged him, a look of defiance unexpectedly entering her normally friendly eyes. 

"I can't, at least, not now," Hikaru replied softly. 

Akari smiled sadly. "I understand," she told him. "Tell me something else though, Hikaru. Why did you tell Touya-kun that you're not going to play go anymore?" 

Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "You're really nosy," he said. "You've talked to Touya too?" 

Akari looked away. "It was an accident," she defended. "That day when you were running out of the school, I saw him, so I asked him if he knew what was wrong with you. You've been weird, and I was worried." She paused, blushing at the confession. 

"So I take it he told you what I told him," Hikaru finished for her, never noticing her reddened cheeks. 

"Why, Hikaru? Don't you like go anymore?" Akari pressed on. 

"If I stop playing, then he'll come back," Hikaru whispered, looking back down at the ground. 

Akari looked at his bowed head curiously. "You mean Sai?" she guessed. 

Hikaru glanced at her. "Why do you want to know about my business so much?" he asked again, irritated at her persistence. "I don't _have_ to play." 

"I know that," Akari murmured, "but I always thought you loved go." 

Hikaru shrugged. "You're wrong then," he responded. However, even as he said it, he could hear his own voice shaking, and right then, he knew that Akari would notice too. 

"I don't understand, Hikaru," she stated, spotting the lie just as he had expected she would. "Why would he come back if you stop playing? Why are you giving up something you love so much?" 

Hikaru shook his head. "You wouldn't get it," he muttered. 

Akari pushed the swing back a little with her feet so that she rocked back and forth as she listened to him. "Then help me," she pleaded softly. "We were best friends, and I. . . ." 

Hikaru stood up from the swing, walked a few meters away and picked up a rock the size of a go stone. Then, holding the rock perfectly between his index and middle finger, he placed it down on the ground as though he was actually playing a game of go. He fought to keep the bitter tears of reminiscence from flowing down his cheeks. He didn't want Akari, of all people, to see him cry, no matter what the cause. Besides, guys don't cry. He looked up when he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, his watery eyes meeting Akari's confused but accepting ones. 

She didn't know what to do, what to say. She just knew that he was hurting, and his pain was making her heart ache for him. Crouching down next to him, she wrapped her arms around his shaking form and rocked him gently. It was the only thing she could do for him now. 

After a few minutes, he calmed down and pulled away from her, hastily wiping away the unshed tears in his eyes. If the sky hadn't been so dark, she might have noticed the faint blush across his cheeks as he stood up and stepped away from her. 

"You're cold," he stated, lacking a better way to break the silence between them. 

"That's because I left my coat at ho-" she started, then stopped. "Oh! I forgot all about the errand! My mom's probably reported me missing to the police by now!" She hurried back to the swings and grabbed the milk that she had set on the ground. 

"Don't you have a phone?" Hikaru asked, knowing that most kids their age were given one, if for nothing else but the fact that their parents could track them down. 

Akari smiled sheepishly. "I left that at home too," she admitted. 

"Great, not only are you annoying and nosy, you're scatterbrained too," he replied, shrugging off his coat. 

Akari frowned. "Thanks. I'll remember _not_ to worry about you next time," she retorted. 

"Here, before you catch a cold, if you haven't already," he said, practically shoving his blue, down coat into her arms. 

Surprised at the gesture, Akari looked at him, only to see him staring over at her head at something else. She turned around to see what was so interesting, and found a crescent moon hanging in the shadowy sky. She wondered briefly what was so intriguing about it. Surely, Hikaru wasn't the type of person who gazed at the moon just to enjoy its presence. Turning back, she studied him under the light that the lampposts provided, and not realizing that she was speaking out loud, she commented, "You've changed, Hikaru." 

The boy broke his gaze at the moon to look at her. He shrugged, his eyes showing only his sadness, his loneliness, his confusion. "Not really," he replied. 

"No, you have," Akari insisted. "You used to be so carefree, so friendly. You seem more reserved now, quieter." 

"Is that good or bad?" Hikaru asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

"I don't know," Akari answered honestly. "I like the way you used to be, but I like the way you are now too. You're. . .more mature." She paused for a moment, searching for the right words. "Go changed you." 

Hikaru winced visibly, obviously reminded of Sai, and perhaps even all the go players he had met during his short career. "Doesn't matter," he whispered. "I won't play again." 

"Don't give up on it, Hikaru," Akari suddenly pleaded, her earnest eyes searching his for a hint of doubt, a wish to keep playing. "I'm sure that whoever Sai is, he's proud of everything you've done. Let go of the past. Treasure what's in the present instead." 

Hikaru managed a wry smile, finding it almost amusing that she kept referring to Sai, despite the fact that she had no idea who, or what, he was. Deciding not to answer her plea, he changed the subject. "Do you believe in ghosts, Akari?" 

A flash of fear made its presence known in the depth of the girl's eyes, and much as she tried, she couldn't keep her voice from shaking when she responded. "G-Ghosts? I guess they could exist. . . ." 

"Never mind," he replied, waving his hand, as though dismissing the thought. He remembered the way she had fled his grandfather's storage room that day when he had first met Sai. He wondered briefly what would have happened if she had stayed. Would she know about Sai? Would it have made a difference at all? 

"Are you going to wear that?" he questioned out of the blue once he noticed that she was still clutching his coat. "Because if you aren't, then give it back to me so at least one of us won't be cold." 

Akari startled, and realizing that she really was freezing, she gingerly put it on, blushing under his unwavering gaze. Hikaru's warmth still lingered on the coat, and despite the fact that the unexpected gesture meant nothing to him, it was everything to her. "Hikaru," she started to say when he interrupted her with a shake of his head. 

"Maybe someday, I'll tell you," he answered her unasked question. 

"Do you promise?" Akari questioned, holding our her pinky to him as though they were back in the third grade again. 

Hikaru made no gesture to accept the old method of holding to a promise. "No," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I said 'maybe'. That doesn't necessarily mean I will." 

Akari pouted, dropping her hand back to her side. "That's not fair," she muttered. 

"Life's not fair," Hikaru returned. He turned away, suddenly feeling the truth in the words he spoke. "Life's not fair," he repeated, this time as though he was talking to himself. He sighed aloud. Turning to Akari, he continued, "Let's go." 

Nodding, Akari followed him in silence, understanding the need for him to have some time to think his own actions through. She still didn't know what was going on, or even why he was doing what he had chosen to do, but just in these few moments, she felt closer to him, closer than she had felt in years. As they walked to her house, she could pretend, if only for this small number of minutes, that they were best friends again, that perhaps, they could even be more. 

~*~*~*~*~ 

Time passed too quickly for Akari, for they soon stood on the front porch of her house. As Hikaru turned to leave, Akari reflexively grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. 

"What?" Hikaru asked, staring down at her. 

"Your coat," Akari answered quietly, putting the milk on the floor to take off what he had given up so that she would be warm. As she did so, her thoughts flew across her mind at the speed of light, debating whether she should do something other than just dumbly hand him his coat and walk inside. And if so, what should she do? A polite "thank you" seemed too formal, and jumping on him certainly wouldn't do. 

She was so nervous that she practically shoved the coat into Hikaru's chest. Taking advantage of the fact that he suddenly had an armful of down, she quickly stood on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Hikaru, and if you need me, I'll always be here," she said, giving him a shy smile before grabbing the milk that had taken her hours to bring home and hurrying inside, her heart pounding loudly in her chest. 

As soon as she closed the front door behind her, she leaned heavily against it and slowly sank to the floor, letting out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. 

"Akari-chan, is that you?" the worried voice of her mother drifted through the front hall of her house, followed by footsteps that were getting louder. The middle-aged woman rounded the corner, and relief flooded her eyes when she spotted her daughter sitting by the front door. 

"Are you okay, Akari-chan?" she asked quickly. 

Akari smiled brightly at her mother. She stood up and handed over the milk. "I've never been better," she chirped happily as she slipped off her shoes and ran up the stairs. She had never felt so frightened, yet so relieved at the same time. "It was the best errand I ever ran," she added, making her mother even more bewildered than before. 

~*~*~*~*~ 

He had no idea how long he had been standing in the same place. The evening wind blew past him, and it was finally the chill that he felt that made him realize he was still holding his coat. Quickly, he put it on, and gingerly touched his cheek where Akari had kissed him. He blushed furiously. Stupid Akari. Why did she have to go do that? 

_I think that she likes you, Hikaru._

That was what Sai had told him three years ago. And he had yelled at the ghost. He was wrong, wasn't he? Hikaru shook his head. Well, at least she hadn't done that when Sai was still around. Otherwise, he would never hear the end of it. _Still, I wish you're here,_ he thought sadly to himself. 

He looked up at the window whose light was just turned on. It was probably Akari's window. Why did she have to go do that? Now, he was going to be annoyed for the rest of the night trying to sort that out. What would Sai say? Hikaru rolled his eyes. _He'll tell me that Akari likes me. Duh._ Sai had said it more than once, after all. 

_Let go of the past. Treasure what's in the present instead._

Was that even possible? Touya hadn't. He had always remember those first two games they had played. And needless to say, Sai hadn't either. Otherwise, why would he live for a thousand years in a go board? Then again, he himself didn't exactly plan on living in a go board like his mentor. He wasn't too big on possessing unsuspecting elementary school kids and making them play go. He let a small smile cross his face. He knew that Akari was at least right when she said that Sai was proud of him. Despite wanting to play himself, Sai had always been fiercely proud of his only student. _If only I could tell you what you mean to me,_ Hikaru thought sadly. But presently, it wasn't possible. Maybe that's what Akari meant. Look at what you can do now instead of what you could have done. Well, he could wait for Sai's return. Then, he could tell the spirit what a great, if only a bit irritating, companion and teacher he was. 

Hikaru stared up at Akari's window. 

_If you need me, I'll always be here._

"Yea, I know," Hikaru muttered as he put his hands into his pockets. As he turned to walk home, he suddenly remembered what had happened ten minutes ago and what Sai used to say after _every_ encounter with Akari. He groaned and resisted the urge to hit himself. This really was going to bug him all night. . . .

**************************************

End of Story.

Ending Notes:

Japanese

I kept the way the characters address each other in Japanese because I felt that was more natural for them. A quick explanation for the honorifics. Japanese people address each other by their last names most of the time. It's polite to do so. Here's a quick rundown of the ones used in the story.

A 'last name-san' is the polite way of addressing a stranger, an older person, or a friend that's not very close to you (usually a female friend).

A 'last name-kun' is a polite way of addressing a guy your own age or younger.

A 'first name-chan' is a way of addressing a close girl friend your own age. It's used very often between girls, less so between a guy and a girl. It's also used to address someone younger than you, such as an aunt addressing her niece.

If a first name is used without an honorific, it usually means that the two people are really, really close, perhaps even romantically involved, much like Haruka and Michiru in BSSM. Hikaru and Akari probably do so because they've grown up together.

Remarks

I personally found it really hard to write this story. I started because nothing happens between Hikaru and Akari in the actual story of HnG, and that frustrates me. Call me a romantic, but it bugged me, especially since Akari so obviously likes him, in my opinion, at least. However, after I showed an unfinished rough copy to my pre-reader, he pointed out that Hikaru was OOC, and I realized that he was absolutely correct. Hence, I rewrote it, this time making sure that Hikaru was IC. What amused me as I kept writing was the fact that in order to make the characters IC, nothing _could_ happen between them . Oh well, I'll call this piece of writing an experiment. Maybe next time, I'll do a chapter fic and then, Hikaru could be OOC, but still believable.

Also, Miyuki and Kimiko were made up, because I don't know the names of Akari's friends, and neither did the people I asked. If you do, please tell me so I can fix that little detail up.

Okay, that's it for my rambling. Questions, reviews, criticism, flames all welcome. Tell me what you thought. Please and thanks!


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